Action Research

Presented to the Department of Educational Leadership

and Postsecondary Education
University of Northern Iowa

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the
Master of Arts in Education

by
Lori L. Netty
Waterloo Community School District
Waterloo, IA
May 5, 2014

Dr. Nicholas Pace

Dr. Barry Wilson

Introduction
I am Lori Netty and am currently in my sixteenth year of teaching in the Waterloo
Community School District. Presently, I am assigned to teach 8th grade math at Bunger Middle
School, a culturally diverse, low socioeconomic middle school in Evansdale, Iowa. Bunger has
approximately 430 students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds where 67% of the students are
on free and reduced lunch. In terms of diversity, the breakdown is 68% white and 17% African
American, while Hispanic, Asian and American Indian students make up the remaining 15% of
the minority student population. My current class sizes are approximately 20 students.
Rationale
Recently, I took part in professional development in my building that involved learning
about small group instruction in the literacy classes. I was intrigued by the information I
received and was curious how I could ever incorporate small group instruction into my very rigid
and scripted math investigations curriculum. Once I was introduced to the Action Research
Project I was required to complete for my Educational Leadership classes, I thought I would give
small group instruction a tryin my math classroom.
I have one block section and two regular sections of math daily. The block meets for
approximately 90 minutes daily while the other two classes meet for approximately 45 minutes
daily. Knowing that small group instruction takes an extreme amount of time to pull off in the
classroom, I chose to experiment with my block section. Many of my block students are not
proficient on the Iowa Assessments, which is primarily the reason they are in the block to get
extra instruction with the extra time. My question is this: Will small group instruction increase
student achievement?

Methodology
Noticing that my block section of students frequently scored lower on the investigation
assessments than my other sections, I developed a plan to get the block on a schedule of small
group instruction once a week to see if the small groups would increase student achievement.
Before I started the small group instruction days in my class, I selected five students that are
proficient on Iowa Assessments and confident in class to become the leaders of each group. I
discussed with the group of five students that they are leaders in the class and do a really nice job
with the curriculum. I explained to them my expectations of keeping the group on task at each
station and helping to answer questions if any arise.
I developed four groups in which the students would rotate through approximately every
twenty minutes after the daily warm up. The four stations consisted of teacher conferencing,
practice problems, summarization, and TI-Nspire calculator practice or basic facts problems.
The teacher conferencing station regularly involved me giving explicit instructions to
four to five students at a time over the concepts we had recently covered in class. Recently, we
have been covering a unit in geometry and using angle rulers, protractors, compasses, and mira
reflecting tools. During the conferencing we would go through part of the students homework
assignment and work through the process of using the tools accurately. The smaller group
allowed the students to focus and gain a better understanding on using the tools required for the
unit.
The station with practice problems actually allowed the students to work on their
homework assignment for the investigation. The students were assigned problems to cover the
concepts learned during the investigation. A third station allowed the students to use a computer

to access their email where I shared a Google document with them asking summary questions
over the investigation. Generally, the questions would ask the students to give specific
instructions for completing tasks covered in the investigation.
Finally, the students would rotate to a station to practice with the TI-Nspire graphing
calculators. This station did not have much to do with the current investigation, however, it
allowed the students to practice with the different applications of the calculator recently learned
in class. These calculators are also the same calculators the students will have access to in high
school. If the calculators were not out then the students would have basic facts problems to work
through to help brush up their basic facts skills.
Evidence
The tables below show the results I recorded before I began small group instruction and
after implementing small group instruction. Before small group instruction began my block

Before Small Group Instruction

Symbols Inv. 1

Class

57
38
35

Period 2
Block 3/4
Period 5

Symbols Inv. 2
Percent Proficient
81
72
76

Shapes Inv. 2

After Small Group Instruction

Class
Period 2
Block 3/4
Period 5

Kaleidoscopes Inv. 1
Kaleidoscopes Inv. 2
Percent Proficient
90
42
74
78
76
67

56
42
53

period percent of students proficient was consistently low with the exception of Symbols
Investigation 2. However, after small group instruction was implemented the number of students
proficient increased and was more aligned with the other two sections.
Conclusion
I would like to think that the implementation of small group instruction was the reason
for the increase of student achievement. Not only did more students become proficient, but more
students also turned in completed homework. The implementation of small group instruction in
math was not an easy task. I had many obstacles to overcome as I tried to implement small
group instruction with fidelity. The months of February and March were plagued by much time
off from school and schedule changes between bitterly cold temperatures, spring break and Iowa
Assessments. Instruction during those months was very choppy.
Technology struggles surfaced as the students tried to access their school email the first
time we had a small group day. Another technology struggle came about with the Google
document when the students composed directly on the shared original document before
making a copy of their own. After talking with literacy teachers that use small group instruction,
they gave me some tips for smoother sailing in the technology department.
With small group instruction comes unsupervised structured time. The students all had a
task at each station and I trusted that they would complete each task and follow all directions.
Well, not all directions were followed and that unsupervised time proved to be a struggle for
some students, which in turn pulled my attention from the conferencing station to tend to
inappropriate behaviors.

I enjoyed implementing small group instruction and look forward to including it in my

instruction next year when all math classes become block sections. I believe that all students
will benefit from the small groups and the novelty of it will wear off as the 6th and 7th grade
teachers use small group instruction as well. I believe the students will become comfortable with
the unsupervised time and the technology woes will be a thing of the past as the students get
better with the technology expectations.